Innocence lost
by Rasain
Summary: When Ichigo's affected by a dangerous virus brought to Earth by a new team of aliens, the old aliens are called to the rescue. Now adults, she and Kish have a new chance at love; she will either be consumed by Kisshu's hot passion or by the unidentified virus in her system. [main IchigoxKisshu] [RetasuxPai] [PuddingxTaruto] [RyouxKeiichiro] [OCxKish] [OCXIchigo]


The abrupt and prolonged creak of the gates broke the silence that filled the abandoned warehouse and a crow croaked its warning at the intruder. A chain kept them from opening completely. The movement shook the fist sized rusty lock and it hit the bars, echoing in the distance. The intruder stopped and listened. Nothing else gave away any unknown and unwanted presence on the grounds. Even so, the shadow stepped carefully forward, its head turning from side to side before it crouched to glide under the chain, through the little space and get unto Private Property, as the sign at the front of the fence declared. With dark, liquid ripples, the shadow grabbed its side and dragged its legs, one after the other, until it reached the massive windowless building. Inside, specks of dust started glowing in the moonlight as the door was pushed open with the heel of an army boot.

The intruder walked in with the confidence of someone who had been to this place before and who knew exactly where everything was, and so he came to a halt in front of a tarp pile. Bowing in front of it, he displaced something from his midriff then he sat down with a huff and then a gasp. A new coat of dust went up and layered his bloody clothes, sticking to him as a second skin. The crow watched the stranger in silence as he took his jacket off, then as he grabbed the hem of his shirt to take it off. With stiff movements, he put his jacket back on before ripping the dirty T-shirt. His breath came out in pained huffs. One of his hands disappeared from sight as it searched the back pocket and came back under the moonlight, which penetrated the darkness of the warehouse through the open door, holding a small bottle with a dark liquid swirling inside. The crow flew into the night sky in its desperate attempt to hide itself from the smell of alcohol. The burning eyes of the intruder didn't stray from the task at hand, not even once. He took a big gulp of the liquid, then he unzipped the jacket to pour the rest on the wound. His hands managed to tie the cloth around his waist and to zip himself up before falling back against the pile.

He hissed and held back a groan as the weight of the jacket pushed against the messy cut in his lower belly. That fucking hurt! His head fell back, exposing his throat to the high ceiling, from which horizontal neons hung. Both of his shoulders sagged forward and he couldn't keep himself up on his elbows too long before he collapsed. There was something hidden under the tarp which pushed against his backside, but his senses were beginning to numb and so he chose to ignore the annoying sensation. He only had a few hours until the sun rose and he intended to rest. The fight was over for tonight.

Akasaka Keiichiro's deep brown eyes darted back and forth from one VDU to another. R2000's recording of yesterday's air surveillance of the city showed the aliens' first strike upon the highest building in the area, which happened to be an office building. The images succeeded one after another and they replayed the first few minutes of the attack, until the mini robot was put down by a blast of energy. The little thing still recorded the pavement for a few moments, and it managed to catch on tape Mint's body hitting the ground, then Ichigo's next after.

On the other screen, Keiichiro scanned the area for any unidentified flying objects or unwanted energy waves. At the same time, he opened another search, hoping to get to Shirogane Ryou through the signal of his cell phone. No such luck. Nothing lit up on the black background, so the scientist presumed that either the device was lying smashed somewhere in the city, or it was turned off.

With a sigh, he laid back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment. He took off his glasses to rub at his eyelids, thinking how could the aliens dispose of such powerful weaponry and what were they up to. At first, when their ship ploughed through the clouds at maximum speed and landed forcefully in the mountains, he thought that Pai, Kisshu and Taruto came back for more Mew Aqua. He was wrong. No message came in from them. It wasn't them. The incident alerted the authorities and no matter how quick they were to get to the landing point, the media and the authorities were already cramped in the space between the cliffs, poking the UFO with their gadgets and hoping they would catch a glimpse of some E.T. faced alien, with bony fingers and big onyx eyes. There was no way they could get close to the ship.

The first attack came a few days later. A store was set aflame by a burning ray coming seemingly from nowhere and still no alien popped up. The whole city went into quarantine. He and Ryou were quick to reactivate the girls' DNA powered abilities and once again, after seven years of peace, the war against the extraterrestrial started again.

Yesterday's attack was the second one and it put three people in hospital, while hurting some of his friends. Mint said she got struck by something heavy, she couldn't see what it was and she was out before she hit the ground. Ichigo jumped in to catch her, but ended up in the same state as her teammate. The others were fine, but none of them could describe exactly what attacked them. Pudding was the only one who could swear that she had briefly seen a floating figure, with ears similar to the cyniclons, but she couldn't say whether it was a male or a female, or even if it was someone they knew… although neither she, nor the others wanted to believe that Pai, Kish or Taruto would have come back to do this to them.

And Keiichiro had his own theories, some of which involving the fact that the aliens wanted the whole world's attention on them, they wanted humans to fear them as never before. What did they want to accomplish with that? What was the motive behind everything? He spent the last ten hours waiting for a sign from Ryou and when his voice floated through the room, the man's breath stopped in his throat.

"I hoped you'd be gone by now, so that I could take a nice, long shower and get a good sleep without you questioning the hell outta me."

Startled, the long haired man turned around and put his glasses on in time to see his partner limp into the lab, wearing tethered and dusty clothes. Keiichiro exhaled loudly and stood up to help his friend to the chair.

"I was worried, where have you been?" the slight waver in his voice reflected his agitation. Ryou sat down and cringed, then he pushed Keiichiro away.

"Making sure they won't follow me back here. I had to take another route back and I stopped at a warehouse for a few hours. How are the girls?"

"They're fine. I gave them a day off so they could get back their strength." Keiichiro crouched next to his partner to look him in the eye, but the blond refused to make visual contact. He was pale and reeked of blood, alcohol and sweat. His hair was sticking to his forehead and cheeks, partially hiding the pained grimace. "You're hurt." His hands were slapped away when he brought his friend a glass of water and some pills.

"Nah, just a scratch. I need to bathe and sleep. I'll be as good as new until tomorrow morning." Turning his attention to the screens, the young blond frowned and checked the signals. He murmured something unintelligible for Keiichiro, but the brown haired man wasn't all that interested in what his partner was saying right now, he was more concerned for his health. He minimized all the programs and snuck an arm under the other's knees, and the other arm behind his shoulders. Ryou gave out a muffled yelp and his head rolled against Keiichiro's chest.

"Lemme down. I can walk on my own." Shirogane complained.

The older man caught a glimpse of the Yamaha parked in front of the café and sighed.

"Walk on your own? No, Ryou. It's a miracle you haven't passed out until now, not while driving that thing. You could have gotten yourself killed."

"If the aliens didn't kill me, then sure as hell driving a bike wouldn't do it either. Let me down."

Keiichiro counted the steps until he reached the upstairs bathroom door and opened it. He placed Ryou on the toilet seat, turned on the shower spray and started unclothing his friend. His fingers flew over the jacket's zipper and pulled it down, only to be stopped by Ryou's cold hands and his stern tone.

"Get out, Akasaka. I'll do it myself."

But the long haired man held his position, even though he drew back to take a good look at Ryou's smeared chest. He had no shirt on. The crust of blood was so thick, that it looked as if it was paint. This made Keiichiro gag and he covered half of his face with his hand. Ryou growled, noticing his friend's reaction.

"Get out, I'm good."

"No - you are very close to passing out."

"Akasaka –" but Ryou was interrupted by Keiichiro's groan. He looked at his partner in silence, as he worked his jaw in frustration. It was no easy feat to get the blond out of his clothes and it was even harder to get him under the hot spray without reopening the deep gash on his lower abdomen, but Keiichiro did it without a word.

Ryou knew his friend hated the sight and the smell of blood, and he would've spared him the view, but he knew as well as him that he couldn't trust his legs right now and none of them wanted him face planted into the bathroom floor. So he played the meek kitten and stayed put, he let his partner wash away the dirt, disinfect the wound, patch him up and put him to bed. As if he was a kid. It annoyed him that much, that he couldn't even close his eyes without letting out some snarky reply. He made sure that his directions were heard before blacking out.

"We have to set up a meeting with the mews and make a plan, because we're not facing amateurs anymore… these guys have both the knowledge and the technology to put an end to us… and we… don't even... know their… motive…"

Akasaka Keiichiro sighed and waited for the blond's breathing to even and only then did he dare leave the bedroom. He left the door slightly ajar, in case he needed to get back fast and returned to the lab in time to see the alarm going off. Something popped up on the radar.


End file.
